Descriptions of the GRAD 8200 Courses

GRAD 8200: Teaching and Learning Topics in Higher Education

Grad 8200 courses offer students a focused exploration of topics related to teaching and learning in higher education. These one credit courses have a typical workload of approximately fifty hours across the semester.

Teaching for Learning: An Online Course

This web-based course is a one credit version of content covered in GRAD 8101. Using a case study approach, students will work through scenarios that feature characters who face professional and personal challenges very similar to those faced by instructors teaching in higher education. Resources and assignments enable participants to expand their skills as a learning-centered instructor. Topics include syllabus design, grading, dealing with difficult student situations, and balancing multiple roles. NOTE: This course meets entirely online. View a syllabus

The Academic Job Search

This course is open to students in all disciplines. It provides opportunities for students to learn about the principles and practices of the academic job search in preparation for a faculty career and to consider how institutional type and culture impact their creation of a job search dossier. Students will begin drafting dossier materials as part of the course in preparation for their job search. The course meets face-to-face five times across the semester with a total workload of approximately 50 hours.

Academic Job Searches in Humanities and Interdisciplinary Fields

This section is designed for grad students & postdoc fellows working on CLA or related degrees, who also have some existing teaching experience and will seek academic careers. This is a hybrid course with development of a job search portfolio conducted in an online space and five face-to-face meetings focused on learning about academic career planning for 21st century future faculty. One of these meetings will be a "field trip" to a local university. Questions to the course instructor. Additional info will be sent also to students once they register for the course.

Language and Literature Job Search Strategies

This course is designed for graduate students who are experienced teachers and who desire a career planning course without the additional teaching experience offered by GRAD 8102. The primary emphasis will be on understanding faculty roles and job search strategies for positions in liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities and community colleges, which will complement participants' existing experience in a research university. In addition to the five class sessions, each student will work to set up a day-long campus visit at a local college or university in order to find out more about particular types of institutions – their day-to-day work as well as the job search process.

Beyond the Academy: Practical Job Search Strategies for PhDs

This course is designed for post-doctoral fellows and doctoral candidates who wish to explore and/or pursue careers outside of academe. The course will engage participants in articulating their career interests, researching non-academic career resources, investigating potential career paths and developing job search strategies for positions in setting such as small businesses, large corporations, non-profit/non-governmental organizations, and government agencies. In order to develop an appropriate job search strategy and job search documents, students enrolled in this course will participate in discussion forums, conduct one informational interview, and create a job search portfolio.

Effective Lecturing: Theory, Practice, and Digital Pedagogy

As future faculty, most graduate students will need to lecture, and to be effective they will need to develop a range of strategies to engage today's tech-savvy students. Best practices for lecturing have evolved to take advantage of visual literacy, instant feedback, peer-led instruction, and large class assessment techniques. Following the lead of programs in physics, biology, and astronomy throughout the nation, this course focuses on redesigning "traditional" lectures to incorporate active learning and collaborative student interactions. This student-centered learning model leverages the smart use of technologies--PowerPoint, the web, personal response systems ("clickers"), and multimedia simulations-to facilitate learning.

Teaching With Technology: Practices, Problems and Promises

Participants explore digital technologies and their application to teaching at the University level. Students will be exposed to the theory and practice of teaching in a variety of online environment. Students will have an opportunity to facilitate an online session, will be exposed to a range of online learning strategies, and will gain experience with evaluating technologies to meet their teaching goals. NOTE: Although students will use technology to communicate and interact with each other in the course, the course does not focus on learning specific software applications.

Active Learning and Course Design in the Sciences

This course is designed for graduate students who have completed GRAD 8101 (or its equivalent as set out by PFF) and who wish to deepen their understandings of and skills for building robust learning environments in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Drawing together extensive reading, writing, reflection, and discussions, students will explore uses of traditional and not-so-traditional teaching/learning strategies to enliven courses as well as increase the appeal and accessibility of the curriculum.

Multicultural Teaching and Learning Across the Disciplines

As research scholars, we learn to draw on multiple sources, to approach issues and ideas with many lenses, and to seek out challenging discussions rich in multiple perspectives. These same practices can be drawn upon to create Multicultural Teaching and Learning Across the Disciplines in our work as teaching scholars in a classroom of diverse learners. Participants will draw on resources from the sciences, humanities, social sciences and education to consider multicultural teaching and learning as it links to development of a course (content and syllabus design), planning of class sessions (including classroom interactions, student learning styles, cooperative learning, and out-of-class student preparation), creating and sustaining discussions that work (especially in tense moments or with controversial material), and responding to students.

Designing Community College Courses for Learning

This course is designed to help community college professors gain an understanding of instructional course design and development. Professors will apply the principles of instructional design to comprehensively develop a course they will or currently teach. Both the instructor and the participants will model a variety of active learning strategies such as: cooperative learning, problem-posing, case study, interactive lecture, discussion, critical thinking, role-playing. By combining action and analysis, participants will explore and develop both instructional design and teaching skills that promote learning within a diverse student body across a variety of settings.